The Papers of Judge John W. Bissell document his service on the
U.S. District Court for the district of New Jersey from 1983-2005. The collection
consists mainly of unpublished opinions, with a few published opinions and articles of
correspondence selected for preservation by Judge Bissell.

Preferred Citation

[Written by Audrey Golden, based on her own research and an
interview with Judge Bissell that she conducted in July 2010.]

Retired Judge John Winslow Bissell presided over the United States District Court for
the District of New Jersey from 1982-2005 after being nominated by then-President
Reagan, and he served as Chief Judge from 2001 until the end of his tenure. Prior to
serving as a federal judge, Bissell was employed in private practice from 1966-69 and
1972-78, first as an Associate and later as a Partner. He also acted as an Assistant
United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey from 1969-71.

Bissell graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1958 and went on to earn his B.A. from
Princeton in 1962, followed by an L.L.B. from the University of Virginia School of Law
in 1965. Subsequent to his retirement from the Court, he entered private practice at
Connell Foley as Counsel, where he continues to serve both as Chair of the firm's
Alternative Dispute Resolution Department and as a member of the Business Litigation
practice group. Although Bissell considers his work in private practice to require
expertise and skills distinct from those he honed as a federal judge, he has emphasized
that his role as an adjudicator nonetheless provided for an efficient shift to his
current function within arbitration and mediation processes. He has reflected
particularly on the translatability of the skills of an adjudicator—hearing
witnesses, reading evidence, drawing conclusion and explaining it in writing—to
those of an arbitrator. The dynamic does shift vastly, however, between adjudicating,
arbitrating, and mediating. Through arbitration and mediation, Bissell indicated that he
has "polished a different set of techniques" from those sharpened through nearly
twenty-five years on the bench.

The papers in this collection, representing decisions from the entirety of Bissell's
tenure on the bench, provide significant insight into the workings of a busy urban
federal court. Due to its inner-city setting in Newark, New Jersey, the Court decided a
substantial number of cases involving antitrust and bank fraud issues, major drug
prosecutions, and federal securities laws. Bissell's Court represents one of three
federal trial courts in New Jersey, with the remaining two located in Trenton, the
state's capital, and Camden. While the court's physical location may have impacted the
types of cases adjudicated, as a federal judge Bissell ruled on cases in which the
demography of vicinage was very diverse, encapsulating jurors, attorneys, and even
parties to the actions from a wide range of urban, affluent suburban, and rural regions.
Bissell noted that, while the courthouse was situated in a large-city locale, the
district from which his cases arose stretched across the northern part of the state of
New Jersey. As a result, jurors were pulled from city centers such as Newark and Jersey
City, but also from many smaller rural towns along the Delaware River and out to
Phillipsburg, as well as suburbs like Morristown in the very northern part of the state
housing wealthy New York City-area commuters. Bissell reflected that his Court's jurors
arrived from a relatively small geographic area, but an immensely varied demography.
Similarly, Bissell's Court saw many attorneys from these representative areas, as well
as those admitted pro hac vice from organizations and firms
throughout the nation, appearing in the District of New Jersey on one-time bases for
specific actions being tried. While attorneys hailed from a wide geographic
distribution, the parties, too, originated from assorted locales, including those both
national and international. In part, this range of parties was a result of their
appearances within a federal trial court, as Bissell
frequently heard diversity actions that otherwise would have been adjudicated within a
state court. At the same time, however, the nature of the cases also led to the notable
diversity of participants, as many of the commercial actions concerned business groups
and companies throughout the United States and abroad.

Trends over time in the variety of cases contained within these papers likely are
reflective of those nationally, displaying an increased number related to employment-law
litigation, in particular employment-discrimination cases pertaining to race, age, and
gender. Gradually more parties began to bring actions under Title VII of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act and the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), while the 1990 and
1993 passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical
Leave Act (FMLA), respectively, also led to increased employment-discrimination
litigation. Bissell reflected that this trend also impacted some of his later decisions
as he became more sensitive to individual conduct, the thwarting of equal protection,
and other discriminatory practices affecting society. These cases range from race, age,
and gender discrimination in police departments and government agencies to those arising
from a variety of large and small private-business actions. The papers in this
collection showcase an increased number of cases concerning rights-based litigation, in
general. In addition to discriminatory employment practices, in the later years of
Bissell's tenure, a large number of decisions concerning employment benefits were
litigated, which is reflected in the numerous cases to which the Social Security
Administration was a named party.

The decision of which Bissell is most proud concerns 21st-century race discrimination in
the workplace. In this 2005 case, Lomack v. City of Newark,
the former judge affirmed a lower court decision to integrate firehouse shifts in a
Newark fire department, a place of employment that was widely segregated as a product of
de facto segregation. Although his decision later was
reversed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Bissell noted of his contrary
conclusion, "I feel very proud of this decision." At the same time, he noted how this
case, in particular, reflects his own growing concern with civil rights issues in his
later years on the bench. When asked whether he would have decided the same way if the
case had come to him in 1983 instead of 2005, his "inkling was probably not."

While many of the cases in this collection remain unpublished, their significance for
legal and historical research in future years is unmistakable. In addition to providing
a historical record of general urban-court practices in the late 20th and early 21st
centuries, Bissell hopes that these papers also will make clear the prevalence of
judicial impartiality at the trial level and the significance of trial-court rulings
generally, matters that frequently are not paid significant attention due to the
academic and legal focus on appellate decisions and their inner-court workings. He has
indicated that the social and political views of an individual judge should never hold a
position in the adjudication process. The conscientious trial judge, Bissell noted,
dedicates himself to deciding a case on its own merits both in terms of the facts
involved and the law that applies; the role of a judge is not to ventilate or to inflict
upon the parties involved a political, social, or sociological point of view. That has
"no place there," Bissell indicated. He also reflected that his papers should produce
for researchers both a sense of what it was like to be working as a federal trial court
judge during this time span, along with the "products of a judge who, like almost all of
them, calls them as he sees them without any baggage overlay." If his body of work helps
to demonstrate these issues to both contemporary and future researchers, the now-retired
judge indicated that he "would be very satisfied."

The Papers of Judge John W. Bissell document his service on the U.S. District Court for
the district of New Jersey from 1983-2005. The collection consists mainly of unpublished
opinions, touching on a great diversity of topics, with a few published opinions and
articles of correspondence selected for preservation by Judge Bissell.

Opinions in this collection which have been published or reported in LEXIS are noted by
the phrase "Published as:" and the relevant citation.

Researchers should note that a few published opinions, issued by Judge Bissell during
the time period represented by the papers donated to the University of Virginia Law
Library Special Collections, nevertheless do not appear in
this collection. A list of published opinions not represented in this collection is available
on the Law Library web site.

Brief summaries have been written for many, though not all, of the cases in the years
1983-1988. The full list of summaries is
available on the Law Library web site.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year. Note
that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed under the same
case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.

A small number of undated papers have been filed at the back of Box 80.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year.
Note that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed
under the same case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year.
Note that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed
under the same case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year.
Note that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed
under the same case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year.
Note that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed
under the same case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year.
Note that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed
under the same case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year.
Note that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed
under the same case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.

Box 13

Abd-Allah v. Neubert 1988
November 29

Opinion; Order

Subject Terms

Detention of persons

Due process and equal protection

Correctional facilities and imprisonment

Criminal investigation, prosecution, interrogation

Criminal justice information and records

Criminal procedure and sentencing

Violent crime

Crimes against property

Box 13

Aetna Cas. & Surety Co. v. Moran 1988 March 03

Letter-Opinion; Order

Subject Terms

Legal fees and court costs

Lawyers and legal services

Box 13

Agosto v. Hous. Auth. of Hoboken 1988 May 25

Opinion; Order

Subject Terms

Due process and equal protection

Housing supply and affordability

Public housing

Lawyers and legal services

Legal fees and court costs

Box 13

Ali v. City of Linden 1988
October 24

Opinion; Order

Subject Terms

Detention of persons

Due process and equal protection

Law enforcement officers

Drug trafficking and controlled substances

Firearms and explosives

Evidence and witnesses

Criminal investigation, prosecution, interrogation

Criminal procedure and sentencing

Criminal justice information and records

Box 13

Anastasio v. Schering Corp. 1988 June 06

Opinion; Exhibit A

Subject Terms

Age discrimination

Employment discrimination and employee rights

Civil actions and liability

Employment discrimination

Legal fees and court costs

Lawyers and legal services

Box 13

Anthony Petroleum, Inc. v. Baii Banking Corp. 1988 June 21

Opinion; Order | Opinion; Order (1988 October 27)

Subject Terms

Citizenship and naturalization

Oil and gas

Contracts and agency

Bankruptcy

Specialized courts

Evidence and witnesses

Banking and financial institutions regulation

Credit and credit markets

Bank accounts, deposits, capital

Box 13

Aquatherm Prod. Corp. v. James Wholesale Drug Co. 1988 January 15

Opinion; Order

Subject Terms

Intellectual property

Competition and antitrust

Trade secrets and economic espionage

Business ethics

Jurisdiction and venue

New York State

Box 13

Banfield v. Middlesex County Adult Corr. Ctr. 1988 September 13

Opinion; Order

Subject Terms

Law enforcement officers

Assault and harassment offenses

Lawyers and legal services

Detention of persons

Correctional facilities and imprisonment

Box 13

Berkner v. Epstein 1988
January 22

Letter-Opinion; Order | Letter-Opinion; Order (1988 January 29) |
Letter-Opinion; Order (1988 March 24)

The papers are arranged alphabetically by case title within each calendar year.
Note that some cases carry over across two or more years; they will be listed
under the same case title in each year for which we have relevant documents.